Tilia will be sold to Thunes.

[Noodles]

What's secret about it?

Well, secret in that they are not out there saying "We want to kill porn" directly. They are just, doing it indirectly, because otherwise trying to say, push a law against it, would be a free speech issue. Cutting off the money is a "capitalism issue."

 

[Noodles]

Then again, most people with very deep pockets are horrendously conservative and authoritarian.

It's easier to get the peons to fall in line with authoritarianism than to let them be free thinkers and free spirits. Those free folks will find alternative ways outside of the system to accomplish things and that means less profiteering!

 

[Mona Eberhardt]

Well, secret in that they are not out there saying "We want to kill porn" directly. They are just, doing it indirectly, because otherwise trying to say, push a law against it, would be a free speech issue. Cutting off the money is a "capitalism issue."

And in this, they're also assisted by the TERF / SWERF mob.

 

[Sid]

Linden Lab (the community manager)'s reaction on the official forums:

This is good news for Second Life residents and creators. More options without additional costs. We are having an open meeting on May 20 and can discuss in detail.

Somehow I'm not convinced about the "without additional costs" part to start with.

 

[Monica Dream]

They lost me at "good news", personally.

 

[Cristiano]

Linden Lab (the community manager)'s reaction on the official forums:



Somehow I'm not convinced about the "without additional costs" part to start with.

What stands out to me is why they didn't have a plan in place to announce it when the news broke? May 20th is a month away, that is just boneheaded PR as usual from Linden Lab.

 

[Madi Perth]

It has a big ageplay problem, because mentioning the possibility alone about that something might be off is enough to put the whole platform into big trouble. If SL would have a different reputation than it has this would be a lesser issue than it is today.

I'm willing to bet that you don't run a child avatar or interact with the community in any significant way. As someone that has been apart of the community for almost 11 years I can tell you that SL ageplay problem is way over blown. The real issue is perception and a very few avatars that keep coming back after being banned over and over. There is one rabid age player that has been around for well over 10 years. She or he, gets banned for age play about two or three times a year then shows up at sims where child avatars with basically the same name, look, and MOD. We ban them, then pass the name and uuid around the groups we maintain on age players. It's the same people over and over. As I said in another forum the child avatar communities probably generates more AR reports on ageplay than any other community. Is there a ageplay problem? yes. Is it as big as people think is it? Hell no.

Not every child avatar is a TOS violation waiting to happen.

 

[Cristiano]

It has a big ageplay problem, because mentioning the possibility alone about that something might be off is enough to put the whole platform into big trouble. If SL would have a different reputation than it has this would be a lesser issue than it is today.

You keep repeating this, but it doesn't make it true.

 

[Cristiano]

Gumroad stopped allowing adult content for the same reason:

Gumroad no longer allows most NSFW art, leaving its adult creators panicked | TechCrunch

Gumroad, an e-commerce company for creators, updated its rules to more strictly limit NSFW content, citing restrictions from payment processors like

techcrunch.com

 

[Free]

Tilia will be sold to Thunes.

This reads like a line from a story about the slave trade in ancient Egypt.

 

[Cristiano]

This reads like a line from a story about the slave trade in ancient Egypt.

I keep reading it as my fellow Cosmos Betraying Fiend, Thanos.

 

[Erich Templar]

On the other forums Coffee Pancake wrote, and I agree with her:

If the payment processor says no smut. We're dead. This is not a reach. This has happened several times now, we have been immune as we owned the payment processor, now we don't.

Tilia is a US company, where they get very uptight about porn. Thunes is a European company, where attitudes are generally more relaxed, so I think this might be the wrong way round, and in fact the move makes it more likely that nsfw content will continue to be permitted

 

[Cristiano]

It is primarily card processors that are the driving force against adult content. Part of it is not them being puritanical, it is that adult sites have to contend with what is known as post-nut regret. People often feel guilty after they get off to whatever weird porn they subscribed to, and do a chargeback with their banks, which card processors hate. Additionally there is a high percentage of stolen cards used on porn sites.

 

[Kalel]

article is old but explains alittle about payment processing involving "high risk" businesses. I wonder if Second Life would be considered in this category...

Why Banks and Payment Processors Shun Perfectly Legal Businesses

Porn, gambling and even furniture sales are deemed “high-risk” merchant categories. Sometimes the risk is financial; other times it’s just bad publicity.

www.coindesk.com

 

[Sid]

On the official forum, LL came with this post:

Linden Lab Executive Chairman Oberwolf Linden has just posted a Q&A interview answering many of your questions about Thunes and their agreement to acquire Tilia. Topics covered include details about the acquisition agreement, what to expect next, and how it impacts the Second Life community. There's also more news about our Community Roundtable, too.

 

[Sid]

The part about the reasons to sell Tilia was convincing. I think it was probably the right choice to do so.
The part about the money and the (possibly) changing fees, not so much. So I put me on the Wait And See - list about that part.

It was good to hear that Oberwolf likes Linden Lab and Second Life, but that says nothing about the future of Second Life IMHO. A peanut farmer loves their peanuts too and enjoys to grow, harvest and store them, but still sells them if they get a good price for them.

 

[Madi Perth]

Well all this is reassuring and such, but I think my views on this whole deal might reflect what many residents have. As long as I can get money in and out of SL without excess hassle and expense, LL can make a deal with the devil on it as far as I'm concerned.

I do like the part where Oberwolf basically states in hindsight Tilia probably wasn't a good road for the Lab to go down. You really don't hear many companies now days admiting to a mistake.

 

[Casey Pelous]

... post-nut regret.

 

[Free]

It was good to hear that Oberwolf likes Linden Lab and Second Life, but that says nothing about the future of Second Life IMHO. A peanut farmer loves their peanuts too and enjoys to grow, harvest and store them, but still sells them if they get a good price for them.

...

...

...

Are, we the peanuts in this analogy?

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I do like the part where Oberwolf basically states in hindsight Tilia probably wasn't a good road for the Lab to go down. You really don't hear many companies now days admiting to a mistake.

Yeah, no kidding. I feel like there is a lot of complicated psychology around when this helps you appear to have better integrity vs when you are better off trying to appear perfect. I feel like more sophisticated audiences appreciate the ability to admit to mistakes.